Walking In A Winter Wonderland...

A few pictures from our trip to Chicago last weekend. We had a blast at Navy Pier's Winter Wonderland. In this picture, we are just arriving in the city and Marcella is absolutely in awe of the "big buildings". She is telling her Blue Bunny (seated on lap with her) to look up at all the skyscrapers...

George & Mar in front of Viejo Pascuero, who is Latin America's Santa Claus...

A Candy Cane Maze

~~Tuesday's snow fall~~


Video Below: Mar singing Frosty the SnowMan...

Dossier, Take 2

In 2005-2007, while we waited for Marcella through the Guatemalan Adoption Process, we hoped & hoped for a phone call from our adoption agency. The few phone calls that we did receive usually meant great news & progress towards bringing Marcella home. This time around (2008 and beyond), any phone call from our agency usually means something is awry in Peru....

Yesterday, we received yet another one of those phone calls.

Its usually doubly troublesome when we receive a 'conference call' with various directors of the adoption agency. Yesterday's call was indeed a conference call.

Our agency called to inform us that due to the recent governmental upheaval in Peru, the Director of Adoptions in Peru has changed. The new Director has a reputation of being very strict and black-letter. The new Director brings a whole new crew of employees with her. Anything and everything going on with Peruvian adoptions has come to a temporary hiatus. How does this affect our case?

This past fall, our agency predicted that we were headed for some major problems because of George's Peruvian Birth Certificate and series of name changes when he was young (details of this fiasco are detailed at the column on the left, and in a previous blog entry.). However, they told us were were going to weather the storm to determine our next strategy.

Yesterday, our agency decided we have weathered the storm enough (especially in light of the new Director coming on Board in Peru), and its high time to embark in a different direction.

Today, they are going to withdraw our Peruvian Adoption Dossier from the Peruvian governmental office where it has been since August. *The dossier is the formalized set of documents (about 2 feet of paperwork) that we spent months and months, not to mention alot of money, meticulously preparing.* After our agency retrieves our dossier, they are going to remove George's Peruvian Birth Certificate, and all of his Peruvian documentation (which we spent ALOT of time trying to obtain in the first place!) that contains his birth name. Our agency has received an 'informal internal warning' from the Peruvian Adoption Authorities that our case would soon be rejected in its current state because George has a Peruvian Birth Certificate (and other documents) that contain his birth name, and an American Birth Certificate (and other documents) that contain his current name. **It is important to note, that all of these documents were specifically REQUIRED by our agency when we were compiling our dossier.... But, things change quickly in international adoption...**

Next week, they are going to resubmit our dossier without the dossier documents that contain George's birth name (Jorge, etc...). They are hoping that this 'slimmed down' version of our Peruvian Adoption Dossier will be less problematic for the new Adoption Administration in Peru. The hope is that our case will have preferential treatment because our remaining documents 1) still demonstrate that George was born in Peru; 2) only reflect his current name; and 3) show that he was adopted in the USA (albeit by his step-father).

Our agency also instructed us that this in NO WAY guaranteed much of anything, but it was worth trying because the alternative (doing nothing) was looking much worse.

Of course, there are many ancilary concerns that we have, but those are for another day.

Is all of this completely confusing & frustrating? Yes.... But, we just have to have faith and be patient. And we just have to remember that EVERYTHING happens for a reason.... It is much easier to keep this in mind, when we have Marcella, our 2-year old emblem of faith & patience, running around our house looking for Santa Claus!!!

Thanks for taking the time to read about our Adoption Rollercoaster ride! We appreciate your support!

Happy Halloween, Take 3

Now Introducing, Dora the Explorer!!!! Dora La Exploradora!!!

Halloween, Take 2

Introducing Ms. Brewers Cheerleader & Mrs. Brigette Brewer

Meowwwwww.

Happy Halloween (a little early). Lake Geneva held trick-or-treating this afternoon (Sunday). All of the downtown businesses opened up their doors for the little ghosts and goblins, kitties and Mongolian Warriors, running around.....

Hasta Pronto, Abuelita!

Marcella's Abuelita (George's mom) is moving to Arizona on November 1st. She is pursuing her dreams of soaking up sun all year round, and being able to tromp around in the mountains at a moment's notice. Although we are sad to see her go, we are happy that she is living life to the fullest and that she is embarking on a grand adventure.

Last weekend, we threw a bon voyage party at our house in Abuelita's honor. Mmmm, A delicious meal for Abuelita's send-off. Appetizers included a black bean--fresh mango--red onion--cilantro--cream cheese dip; and a Spicy Sweet Pretzel & Almond snack. We also had steaks on the grill, the 'ultimate stuffed baked potato' (as seen on Food Network/Tyler Florence); and Delilah's garlic bread & salad. Oh, and there was a 'little' vino to accompany the food...

We literally danced the night away. At right, Gideon strumming his guitar, while Marcella practices her flamenco moves. She finally went to bed about 10:30 p.m., but she would've happily kept on going had her mom not intervened!

"You gotta have a dream. If you don't have a dream, how are you gonna make a dream come true?" ~South Pacific (quote displayed on a decorative, inspirational fence along the Lake Geneva lakeshore walking path)

Carpe Diem, Abuelita!!!

Professional Wedding Pictures

Here are a few awesome pictures that my sister just got back from her photographer...

Wild Thing, I Think I LOVE You!!!!

I have dreamt about the day that I could blog about finally grasping the WILD CARD. Today, Game Number 162 of the 2008 season, is that day. And now I am nearly speechless. Suffice to say, a dream come true for Brewers Nation!!!

Save the TaTa's and some other recent memories

This past weekend, I walked with 3 friends{Cassie, my niece; Delilah, my sister-in-law; and Jodi, George's coworker}for the 1st Annual Lake Geneva Hope Walk for Breast Cancer. We couldn't have picked a better day for the walk, or better scenery. We hiked along the Lake Geneva shorepath, which literally crosses over the backyards of mansions along the lake. Lake Geneva has a rule of some sorts that mandates lake property owners to maintain a walkway for people to saunter around the lake. We walked to Williams Bay (7 miles) and then back to Lake Geneva (another 7 miles). Grand total: 14 miles! The "Save the Ta-Ta's" reference in the Title comes from some of the creative shirts we saw fellow walkers wearing along the lake path...

Last weekend was our 5th anniversary ("6th Honeymoon". We spent a wonderful weekend in Elkhart Lake, at the Osthoff Resort. On the way to the Resort, we stopped by the Kohler/Andrae State Park near Sheboygan---absolutely impressive. Who knew that Wisconsin had sand dunes? We had a blast walking barefoot (in late September) along Lake Michigan.

Here are a few random pictures of Marcella, her cool new shoes from Grandma, soaking her feet with Daddy, and our amazing Orange Tree.

Introducing Mr & Mrs Glaser

My little sister, Micky, just got married this past weekend. She married an awesome guy (and a pretty darn good hockey player), Darin. They had a beautiful outdoor wedding, in a park where they went on their first date. Everything was perfect and awesome---from the laid back atmosphere of LOVE, to the Jack Johnson song that they walked down the aisle to....

Marcella was the sparkly, star-wand waving flower girl,,,and I was the "Best Lady".

The wedding had a very 'natural' theme---home grown wheat grass, compliments of green thumb Aunt Suzie, adorned everything.

One of my sister's biggest passions is desserts. You wouldn't know it by her small size, but you would know it by the delicious details that came in the form of her wedding cake & the bite-size pastries that accompanied it.

Best Wishes Micky & Darin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!